Pascal Verhoest is managing director of DISC (Decisionmaking, Innovation, Science and Communication. DISC is a coordination and support centre for ICT research and economic development financed by the Brussels-Captital Region government. Pascal is also an expert adviser of TNO Information and Communication Technology (TNO-ICT) in Delft (the Netherlands) and chairman of the European Network for Communication and Information Perspectives (ENCIP), a collaborative research network. At the Free University of Brussels Pascal Verhoest holds the chair of Political Economy of Communication.

His main intellectual field of interest is the political economy of information and communication systems and his publication record includes books (in Dutch) as well as international peer reviewed journal articles on electronic business, telecommunication policy, and related issues. Pascal Verhoest is actively involved in diverse research activities and regularly acts as adviser of governments and international institutions.
 

Matthias Kurth was appointed president of the Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA) in March 2001. BNetzA is the sector-specific competition authority for energy, telecommunications and postal markets in Germany including frequency management, digital signature and railway. Matthias joined BNetzA as Vice President in 2000. Prior he was since July 1999 member of the management of Colt Telecom GmbH as Director Business Development, Law and Regulation. From 1994 to 1999,  Matthias Kurth worked as State Secretary in the Hesse Ministry of Economics, Transport, Technology and European Affairs. He was member of the Hesse Land Parliament from 1978 to 1994 and worked as lawyer in Hesse.

Matthias Kurth was as member of the Hesse government Representative of the State of Hesse in the Regulatory Council for Posts and Telecommunications, cooperating in framing the Telecommunications Act and Representative of the State of Hesse in the Committee of the Regions of the European Union, focusing trans-European networks, information and communications technology, and air transport.
 

Tim Kelly is Head of the Strategy and Policy Unit of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where he has worked since 1993.  Before joining ITU he spent five years as a Communications Policy Analyst with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and three years with Logica Consultancy Ltd.  He has an MA (Hons) degree in Geography and a Ph.D in industrial economics from Cambridge University.

Over the last twenty years, Tim Kelly has specialised in the economics of the telecommunications industry. He has written or co-authored more than 30 books on the subject including the ITU's “Internet Reports” and "World Telecommunication Development Report"and “World Information Society Reports”. He was in charge of the “content team” for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which concluded in November 2005 and was visiting scholar at the business school of HK University of Science and Technology, Dec 2005/Jan 2006.
 

Lara Srivastava
ITU New Initiatives
Programme Director -
Strategy & Policy Unit,
ITU

Lara Srivastava is ITU New Initiatives Programme Director.  She has over 10 years of experience in the ICT industry, and is currently responsible for monitoring and analyzing trends in technology, policy, and market structure, with a particular focus on mobile wireless communications. She organizes and advises on workshops and symposia programmes, covering topics of interest to policy-makers, regulators and industry. Lara  writes and manages publications produced by the ITU’s Strategy and Policy Unit, e.g. ITU Internet Reports such as “The Internet of Things” and “The Portable Internet”. She has published several articles in refereed journals (e.g. Telecommunications Policy) and in books such as Mobile Understanding: The Epistemology of Ubiquitous Communication and Thumb Culture, on topics ranging from the mobile Internet and market regulation to the growing nexus between technology and society.  

Before joining ITU in January 2000, Lara worked for the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC), the Technical University of Delft (Netherlands) and for the UK-based telecommunication consultancy Analysys. Lara holds a B.A. Honours, a Master of Arts (M.A), a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), an Advanced Post-Graduate Diploma in International Law &Telecommunications (C.R.A.), and a Master of Science (M.Sc) in Science & Technology Policy. Lara Srivastava is a qualified barrister and solicitor, and a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
 

Panu Mustonen is also an Evangelist for Finnish Neogames Center for game industry as well as speaker and commentator on fields of mobile business, entertainment and marketing.

Amardeo worked at Deutsche Telekom and predecessor from 1980 to 1995, where he participated in several internal and international projects dealing with signalling, protocols, ATM, middleware and specification techniques. He acted as Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 10 from 1996 – 2001 and then Co-Chairman of the combined Study Group 17 on “Data Networks and Telecommunication Software” until 2004. He is Steering Board member of the WWRF (Wireless World Research Forum), and IEEE Senior Member. Amardeo is currently in charge of the “Global Architecture and Scenario based design” Work Package of the EU IST Integrated Project “Daidalos”.
 

Yan Xu is currently Associate Professor of the Department of Information and Systems Management of the HKUST Business School. He received his PhD from the University of Strathclyde (UK) Business School (1997). He has worked with theformer Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) of China, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, British Telecom’s Laboratories and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). His research and teaching interests include corporate management, competitive strategy and regulatory policy of telecommunications. He has also provided extensive research and consulting for the former MPT of China, British Telecom, China Mobile, China Telecom, Nortel, OFTA, Audit Commission of Hong Kong Government, the Internet and Telecom Association of Hong Kong (ITAHK) and the ITU.

Yan has published extensively in renowned international journals such as Telecommunications Policy. Is 2002, he jointly published his book with Douglas Pitt, Chinese Telecommunications Policy, by Artech House. He is currently on the board of executive directors of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS). He is also member of the ITU Telecom World Forum 2006 Advisory Committee. He is President, Regulation Issues Group, of the Internet and Telecomm Association of Hong Kong (ITAHK) since 2005.
 

Between 1987 and 1992, he was responsible for spectrum issues at the German Ministry for Post and Telecommunication. Prior to that, he worked for Regional Directorate of Cologne, where he held different responsibilities in the radiocommunication area.

Since 2003, he has been a visiting Associate Professor at the Global Information and Telecommunication Institute of Waseda University. Since 2005, he has been an Associate Professor at Tsuda College. His current research focus is ubiquitous information system for health and welfare services, especially based on Information Quality aspects.
 

In the period  between 1996-2004, Soeren workedfor the European Radiocommunications Office (ERO) and was deputy director of the office providing advice and support to the CEPT administrations in Europe on frequency management and regulatory issues. Soeren has also been working for the national telecom agency in Denmark and has been chairing working groups and committees within CEPT as well as the ITU during the last 25 years.

For a long time Chris Weck worked in the section “digital broadcasting transmission systems”, where he was contributing to numerous national and international projects in the area of digital transmission systems, broadcast service quality and coverage issues as well as hybrid broadcast and mobile networks, e.g. he was involved in the system specification of digital audio broadcasting (DAB) and of digital terrestrial television broadcasting DVB-T.

Since 2000, Chris is the general manager of the division "Programme Distribution" and co-ordinates various IRT projects dealing with broadcasting transmission systems, wave propagation, network issues and frequency management.

He previously worked in the Research Centre of France Telecom, dealing with electromagnetic compatibility and spectrum engineering.

Before joining Ofcom at its inception in January 2004, Anirban worked as a management consultant at Arthur D. Little and then at Solving International working primarily for government clients and a range of European fixed and mobile telecoms operators. Prior to that he worked for Arthur Andersen. Anirban is an economics graduate of Cambridge University and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Philippe Lefebvre is principal administrator at the European Commission. Since 2003, he is member of the spectrum policy unit of the directorate-general “Information Society and Media”. His main areas of responsibility include broadcasting, short range devices, liaison between EU policy and research in the field of radio spectrum and the secretarial organisation of the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG).
From 1996 to 2003, Philippe held several positions related to financial services in two other general directorates of the Commission, including head of sector in the electronic commerce division, in charge of research and innovation for financial systems & technologies.

Prior to joining the European Commission in 1996, Philippe Lefebvre held several technical and marketing positions in the payment services industry, with the Belgian’s Generale Bank – now Fortis - group (1983-1986), Eurocard International – now MasterCard Europe - as vice-president Southern Europe (1987-1991), and with Visa International in the US (1992-1995). Philippe Lefebvre is graduated in electrical & mechanical engineering (MS) from the University of Brussels and graduated in economics (MBA) from the same university.
 

Christoph Legutko was born in Krakow 1957. He studied at Mining- and Metallurgical Academy in Krakow (Poland) and achieved Master Degree in Electronics Engineering in 1981. He began his professional career in 1982 when he joined an electronic utility company in Germany where he developed distance and movement sensors.

After joining Siemens AG in Munich in 1984 he developed I/O processors of main frame computers and RISC CPU architectures. In the nineties he focused on market development for computing and telecommunication investment goods. He set up the sales organisations and introduced CAD-software as well as telecommunication hardware products into international markets as Area Manager for countries in Eastern and Northern Europe. Between 2000 and 2006, Christoph was responsible for frequency policy issues for the whole mobile products sector of Siemens Communicatios.  He moved from Siemens to Intel in 2006. He represents Intel at ITU-R, CEPT/ECC and other regulatory and industrial bodies.
 

Luca Galli is a partner with Neos, an Italian SME active in application design and development for enterprise customers. He is currently focused on international collaborative R&D projects about mobile and wireless services in 3G/4G environments, in which he mainly contributes to user studies and business modelling.

Luca has spent ten years in the interactive service industry, working with leading Web design firms as an analyst, consultant, account manager and as a magazine staff editor. Luca teaches design methodology in an undergraduate media program and holds a master degree in Philosophy from Milano State University.
 

Eric holds a Master of Science in Electronics and Signal Processing as well as an MBA in International Commerce.
 

He is a graduate of Oxford University and a member of the Bar of England and Wales. He joined the European Commission in 1987, and DG XIII, now the Information Society and Media Directorate-General, in 1994. From 1994 until the beginning of 2000, he was secretary of the Legal Advisory Board, composed of independent experts in information law.

Rob Borthwick is responsible for regulatory issues relating to new product development for Vodafone Group internationally.  His work includes providing economic and policy advice on new mobile propositions and services under development by Vodafone and regulatory support for Vodafone’s international interoperability strategy. He works on proactive self-regulation of new forms of mobile content to ensure that Vodafone's customers enjoy a safer mobile and internet environment. 

Prior to Vodafone he has worked for a number of telecommunications operators and public bodies on telecommunications policy, interconnection and pricing.
 

Marie Georges, originally an economist, joined the ‘Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés’ (National Data Protection and Liberties Commission) in 1979, and she participated in the implementation of services and procedures, and was then successively charged with the follow-up of the « informatique et libertés » (Data protection) law in the sectors of the interior, finance and statistics, social and medical affairs, and telecommunications networks (e.g. Internet).

As a  national expert for the European Commission, she participated in the elaboration of the European Directive on Data Protection from 1991 until it was passed in 1995, and s in the elaboration of the complementary Directive on Data Protection and Privacy in the telecommunications sector. After returning to the CNIL, she was responsible for the telecommunications sector, before becoming Head of Division of European and International Affairs and Advanced Studies from 2001 to 2005. Her international activities have led her to participate in elaborating several recommendations by the Council of Europe, to follow OECD activities in Data Protection, to participate in the GATS negotiation (1991-1994) as well as in certain works of the 3W Consortium charged with Web standards.  She has been Counsellor of the CNIL President for Advanced Studies, Development and Cooperation since September 2005.
 

In the last five years, he has concentrated on broadcasting and telecoms policy, lecturing at the University of East London and editing Intermedia, the policy journal of the International Institute of Communications. He contributed a chapter to The Handbook of Corporate Communications published by Routledge in 2004. Martin has a BA (hons) from Goldsmiths College, University of London, a post-graduate journalism diploma and an MA from the University of Westminster.
 

Ingrid Silver is a partner in the Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) department at Denton Wilde Sapte.  Denton Wilde Sapte is a leading international law firm, which comprises a team of specialists dedicated to the TMT sector. Ingrid has been involved in the media and communications sector for over 10 years. She advises a wide range of clients including large corporates and cutting edge new market entrants in the TMT sector with a particular focus on new media services such as interactive and mobile content services and convergence. 

Born and raised in Australia, her practice is truly international as she is a native French speaker and fluent German speaker, and has lived, studied and worked in several countries across Europe. Ingrid is involved in a number of organisations including being European President of the Global Telecommunications Women's Network (GTWN), a member of the Programme Planning Committee for the International Institute of Communications (IIC), a member of Stream Magazine's Editorial Advisory Board and sits on the Global Board of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF).   She regularly speaks at conferences and writes about her areas of specialisation.
 

Natasha has a broad telecommunications background, having worked in the sector for over 15 years. She started her career at Cable & Wireless and has worked internationally across fixed and mobile business in both blue chip and start up environments.
 

Yoshichika Imaizumi was appointed to the Telecommunications Consumer Policy Division, Telecommunications Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) Japan in August 2005. He is currently in charge of formulating Anti-spam Legislation. Before assuming this position, he was assigned to the Financial Services Agency and was in charge of Credit System Stabilization.

Yoshichika Imaizumi was born on December 1st, 1979 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. He graduated from Kyoto University in March 2003, where he studied law.
 

He spent fifteen years as an academic, latterly a dean in the University of Wales. He has taught at the Universities of Wolverhampton, Westminster, Stirling and Wales, plus a semester as a visiting professorial lecturer at Georgetown University (Washington, DC). His teaching has concentrated on the strategic and policy aspects of business use of telecommunications and information technology. Ewan is a graduate of the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, both in his native city of Glasgow, Scotland.
 

Serge Ferré holds a Master of Law and an MBA.

Prior to joining T-Mobile in 2004, he worked with two international law firms as a lawyer, specializing in competition, regulatory and energy law.

Sergio Ramos is an expert on mobile and wireless communications, his research interests being the technological, economic, regulatory and social aspects of 3G and beyond mobile communications systems, mobile Internet and fixed-mobile convergence. He is currently deputy co-ordinator of the Chair on Information Society Development of Red.es and Assistant Professor at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
 

Bernard Hill is the Head of Competition Affairs at Hong Kong’s Telecommunications Authority.  His department is responsible for the enforcement of the competition law provisions of the telecommunications regime which includes the investigation and analysis of mergers and acquisitions in the sector as well as instances of misuse of market dominance and collusion. This department also investigates the economic and market impact of specific regulatory policies, such as the licensing of VoIP services and interconnection charges.

Bernard Hill has over 25 years experience in the practice and administration of competition law. As Director Special Duties in the New Zealand Department of Trade & Industry in the early 1980’s, Bernard was responsible for the investigation of mergers and takeovers and the development of competition law legislative policy which culminated in the introduction of a major reform of New Zealand’s restrictive trade practice and merger law in 1986. Subsequently, Bernard was for many years, a partner in one of New Zealand’s principal commercial law firms, where he was closely involved in the leading competition law cases which accompanied the economy wide deregulation initiatives implemented in New Zealand in the 1990’s, including telecommunications. Bernard also has extensive commercial transaction experience in telecommunications and the media.  He has represented many international companies, and has appeared as an advocate in New Zealand’s Court of Appeal and the Privy Council in the United Kingdom.  He is the author of two publications on New Zealand’s competition and fair trading laws.
 

Justus Haucap studied economics at the University of Saarland, Saarbrücken (Germany) and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA). He finished his doctoral dissertation in 1997 at the University of Saarland. From 1997 to 1999 , Justus worked first as a senior analyst for the New Zealand Treasury in Wellington (New Zealand), where his responsibilities included providing advice to the Government on the regulation of network industries, especially telecommunications. Between 1999 and 2003 Justus Haucap lectured at the University of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg, and since 2003 he is Professor, holding the Chair for Industrial Economics and Competition Policy at the Ruhr-University of Bochum (Germany). Justus Haucap has published extensively on telecommunications issues, and his publications have appeared in reputed journals. He also co-authored a detailed study on competition in the Austrian mobile telecommunications market. His latest book, Access Pricing: Theory and Practice, will be published by Elsevier Science in 2006.

Justus has also been a consultant to various telecommunications operators and Government agencies, including Mobilkom Austria, T-Mobile Austria, Orange Switzerland, the New Zealand Treasury, the Network Economics Consulting Group (NECG), the German Ministry for Economic Affairs, Deutsche Telekom, and Telecom New Zealand, among others. In June 2004, Justus Haucap was elected a member of the scientific advisory board of the Scientific Institute for Communications Services (WIK).
 

Having studied electrical engineering at the University of the Federal Armed Forced in Hamburg, Thomas has been working in the area of national and international frequency regulation on different levels since 1992. He began with single frequency coordination for radiolocation and radio-navigation systems, and also the development of strategic frequency utilization concepts and the transposition of those to the international level of CEPT and ITU. Doing this and having been active in the preparation of the WRC 2000 and WRC 2003 (including being the Deputy Head of the German delegation and the CEPT spokesman for WRC-2000 on Radio-navigation satellite issues), his work has involved the participation in (and leading of) a number of international groups.
 

From May 2003 until September 2004 he worked as BMCO (Broadcast Mobile Convergence) project manager in Berlin.  He is currently Executive Director of the BMCO forum, an international industrial relations activity to accompany and support the development of an open market environment for mobile broadcast services.